Jailed for sex with schoolgirl

Robbie Martin was sentenced to three years in a detention centre for raping a 12-year-old girl

This is teenager Robbie Martin who was sentenced to three years in a detention centre for raping a 12-year-old girl.

Reading Crown Court heard the offence took place between August 24 and 27 last year, at the girl’s mother’s home in Reading.

The court heard the girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was due to stay with her father while her mum went on holiday.

But she left his house and returned to Reading, meeting up with the defendant and his friends who stayed with her at her mother’s house for a few days, the court heard.

At his sentencing on March 26, Jane Davies, prosecuting, said: “It was during that time the victim says she told the defendant she was 14 and on the last night the group were in the house the defendant asked her to have sex with him and she agreed.”

When the girl’s mother returned she initially thought someone had broken in, the court heard.

“It was during that conversation her daughter said boys had been round and she did have sexual intercourse [and] described the defendant to her mother as her boyfriend,” she said.

“[She] told her mother the defendant was 18 years old and wanted to have sex with him.”

Reading a statement from the victim during a police interview the Recorder, Angela Morris said: “My nan said, ‘Everyone does it at your age, try it out’.”

Martin, 19, of Mill Road, Burghfield, admitted one count of rape at a hearing on Thursday, March 4.

Michael Skelley, defending, said: “She actively misled him as to her age. She says on the video [police interview], ‘I didn’t tell him my real age because I would be too young for him’.

“She told him she was 14 after the intercourse.

“When he came home he was distraught by the fact he had found out she was underage. Had Robbie known her actual age this offence wouldn’t have happened.”

Sentencing, Miss Morris said: “You are a young man still only 19 years of age.

“Whether you initially believed she was 15 or 16 down to her appearance seems to me to matter less.

“What’s clear is first of all she lied about her age, that she had actively pursued you prior to gaining entry to her mother’s house and that she and you in terms of maturity may in fact be closer in age than your actual ages on paper would indicate.”

She added: “This is a tragic case.

“It seems to me this was a case where two people who were both sexually inexperienced took advantage of an opportunity while her mother was away.”

Martin was sentenced to three years in a young offenders institution and will be on the Sex Offenders’ Register for the next 10 years.